Making "Frozen Smoke," the Fast Way

One day, the Aerogel Team’s novel way of making “frozen
smoke” could improve some of our favorite machines (like cars, but we’ll get to
that).

“When you hold aerogel it feels like nothing – like frozen smoke.
It’s about 95 to 97 percent air,” Ann Anderson said. “Nano-porous, solid and very
low density, aerogel is made by removing solvents from a wet-gel. It’s used for
many purposes, like thermal insulation (on the Mars Rover), in windows or in extreme-weather
clothing and sensors.”

Together with Brad Bruno, Mary Carroll and others, Anderson
is studying the feasibility of commercializing their aerogel fabrication
process. A time and money-saver, it could appeal to industries already using
aerogel made in other ways.

During rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE), chemicals gel
together (like Jell-O) in a hot press; the resulting wet-gel is dried by
removing solvents (the wet part). The remaining aerogel (dried gel), is created
in hours, rather than the days or weeks alternative methods take.

RSCE, Anderson said, is also approximately seven times
cheaper, requiring one hour of labor for every 8 hours the other methods need.

A good place for such a process, and Union aerogel, is the
automotive industry.

“Our 3-way catalytic aerogels promote chemical reactions
that convert the three major pollutants in automotive exhaust – unburned
hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide – into less harmful water,
nitrogen and carbon dioxide,” Anderson said. “Because aerogels have very high
surface areas and good thermal properties, we think they could replace precious
metals, like platinum, used in current catalytic converters.”

Indeed, the surface area of one 0.5-gram bit of aerogel
equals 250 square meters.

“That’s a lot of surface area for gases to come in contact
with, facilitating very efficient pollution mitigation,” Anderson said.

The team’s work has received support from the National
Science Foundation, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund and the Union College Faculty
Research Fund.